one of a kind is my new favourite shop

One of a kind on Portobello Road is now my new favourite little shop (not that I am going to but anything from there in the near future as I am a poor student) But still, I could spend all day in there just sifting through the millions and million of beautiful, vintage garments that ooze from it's every pore. It's lush.

I love how it's so dark and feels a little bit seedy, and like you shouldn't really be in there. It's so cluttered, it feels almost like your in a really old, flamboyant actresses dressing room who has just hoarded every single piece of clothing she has ever worn, holding onto it for the memories of stardom.

I love how if your quite tall, like me, you get hit in the face every couple of seconds by some adorned sparkly handbag or a scarf. It makes you feel like your interacting with the shop, rather than just walking around having a look, you have to actually move thing and touch them, great.

They have so much stuff hanging from the ceiling, it's so fun to just look up for a minute and take it all in. I nearly fell over doing this. I had the shop assistant asking me if I was OK? I think she must have though a was a bit weird standing with my head tilted back as far as it would go, with my mouth slightly open in awe. She didn't seem to mind. The staff in there are really welcoming. I was expecting them to be a bit stuck up, as they have so manycelebrities going in there all the time.

I asked a girl about her experience in there and she said that as she was about to enter, the owner came out and ushered her and her pal into a van(a bit creepy, i thought) and told them to wait there as some paperazzi were around trying to get a sniff at Kate Moss who had just been in... It all sounded a bit dubious to me. I was certainly not going to let some guy put me in a van!

Luckily no one did and i had a really good time browsing and getting inspired by the fabulous array of vintage wonders.

The end of a brief romance is when I find out that you are just trying to be someone else.

After visiting the uber cool Digitaria boutique, in Soho, I cant help but come to wonder, is it all just copying?

I know I'm harping on about the Leigh Bowery thing, but I'm a huge fan and have been for sometime. That was the very thing that drew me in to Digitaria. The clothes with his signature black eyes and red lips, outragousness of it all. I refereed to it as a shrine.

But after researching Scottee the performance artist who has a creative role in Digitaria, I have discovered that he is basically just a Leigh Bowery wannabe. He dresses like him, promotes himself like him, and performs like him. take a look

Here he is in one of his performances giving birth to 'hare lipped still born judy Garland'

which is accompanied by a vert amusing poem. But Leigh did something very similar 20 years ago. Its hardly modern art, it's just down right copying.

(this is one of many copy cat thing he does on his blog)

I think that if I hadn't discovered Scottee as a fake, Digitaria would probably be my favorite shop, but now i feel like when I go in I'm just looking at everything thinking "copied" "copied" "fake" "fake" Maybe I just don't understand the real ethos of the shop, but I think that they have crossed the line between homage and just making money off of someone else's genius. It's sad because I wanted to like it so much.

Unfortunatly One Of A Kind will not let you take photographs inside their lovely shop,

I would draw you a picture of what is inside but there is that much stuff in there that I would probably be drawing it for the rest of my life, as I like to pay attention to detail, and you still wouldn't understand how magical it is in there.... your just going to have to go see for yourself.

Anish Kapoor Exhibition at The Royal Academy was epic...

Every twenty minutes a little gun man comes out and fires a pellet of red wax into this doorway so the artwork is constantly changing and developing,

check out this link to watch a live webcam of the eventhttp://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/anish-kapoor/about/

These are all made from wax, it's really slimy looking... I had to touch it, it was really soft and stained my finger. Everything in this exhibition was very tactile and made you want t touch it.

This is going to be hard work to clean up for the Van Gogh Exhibition which opens in Jan... Apparently they are going to freeze the wax off.

I know one of a kind and two of a kind aren't really the same thing but this is what I think of when I think of the shop name 'one of a kind'

Maybe this was what I was thinking of.... sicko same difference, Not really relevant.

or even worse and more fitting.... Two of a kind, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in there disscusting little TV series of the 90's

Or even worse and yet sicker, this Two of a kind film with the Grease sickos that are Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta starring in it.

The rainbow circle of doom... little bastard.

I know that macs are better, faster and less likely to crash than P.Cs. I am a Mac girl all the way. But I cant stand the the little circle of doom which appears when something really bad has happened. Especially when your doing something really important and then it rears its ugly little spinning face, to tell you that you cant click on anything. and you end up having to force quit and lose everything.

I especially hate the fact it pretend that its something nice and pretty "oohh look at those pretty colours in a little circle" ... NO! its deceteful and evil, a wolf in sheep's technicoloured clothing... It needs to die.

One of a kind? Eeww.

I have been told about this really cool, vintage shop on portobello Road. Sounds cool but the name has really put me off... One of a kind. It sounds like an act of Britain's got talent or X factor or something like that, I don't watch them shows but I'm sure there was a group with a similar name... Am I right?...

digitaria... The Leigh Bowery shrine

Having been really intrigued by the fabulous, yet quite intimidating artwork which Adorne the front windows of the Berwick St boutique, I eventually decided to venture in,

I noticed a definite mix of the futuristic, ultra modern exquisitely designed clothes and retro, Leigh Bowery inspired decor. I cant decide if i like the Leigh Bowery thing that seems to be plastered all over the walls of this shop (quite literally)

As you enter the shop you are greeted by a wooden Cabernet on which stand a totally 'Leighified' bust complete with head dress and strap on mouth piece. on the wall above hung two stuffed bodices reminding me a lot of the padded undergarments which would have been worn by Leigh under his ornate costumes to create which ever unnatural shape he was going for.

The rails were packed with a combination of selective pieces that were ultra modern, sophisticated and futuristic, with a splashes of crazy outlandish statement pieces like a shiny, metallic blue, bomber jacket with oversized piping, very fun, totally unwearable but embodying the essence of the shop non the less. My favourite piece in the shop had to be a pair of jodppars that had been meticulously pleated, and at the back yoke which created a dramatic fanning effect as the pleats flowed down the grey/pink trousers. Niicccee..

All the garments in this are are either designed by Eleftheria Arapoglou and Stavros Karelis, or their guest designer, at the momement it's Lee Benjamin who is unfortunately 'ungoogleable' but is very Leigh Bowery inspired, as is the performance artist Scottee who is responsible for the art space situated downstairs of this rather modest sized shop.

Digitaria window displays

I love Digitaria, the fantastic, futuristic little boutique on Berwick Street, Soho, London. Established by Eleftheria Arapoglou and Stavros Karelis, They are Greek, can you tell? They have already had success with their Digitaria shop in Athens and are now doing it here in London too! We are so lucky.

The window displays are amazing and as you walk past, you wonder if it's a shop or and art exhibition. Well the answer, I discovered, is both.

Take a look at a few ....

This one is my favourite i love the mixture black and white, creepy looking, animal photographs and childlike illustrations.

Is it a window display or an art installation piece?

Always changing, always moving forward with inspirational ideas

Liking the penis print

Remember these?

These Wade Pottery baby pigs made from 1984- 1989 for Natwest,

Unfortunately the Wade pigs aren't valuable, but if you were lucky enough to get one of the first 400 families, they were made by Sunshine and are quite valuable I hear.....

I haven't got one of those, just the normal one.

My sister bought me them from a car boot sales as we both used to have them when we were little, but these things always go missing so she bought me the baby and the sister pig, recalling how we both used to love them.

She also replace the sister pig, which I have kept at my parents house, in a safe place. I also remember owning the whole family of pigs when I was young (minus the brother, because we didn't like boys).... How things change.

They are all a bit creepy looking, I still think they look pretty cool on your shelf of nik-nacks. They do the job too, I've saved about a fiver since I've had mine. I think thats pretty good going.

Luella (sad face)

A little drawing i did of Luella A/W 09 dress

So sad.

This week, for some reason, I have the clothes making ability of flora, the red fairy from sleeping beauty. (without magic)

"Its eerr... not exactly how it looks in the book is it?"

" I improved it".... thats me.

clips about clothes

suicide, A trend?

Roh Moo Hyun 16th President of Korea committed suicide on 23rd May 2009

Choi Jin Sil, Korean actress who committed suicide 2nd October 2008

Jang Ja-Yeon Korean actress who committed suicide on 7th March 2009

I was very sad to learn of the death of Korean Model and Actress Daul Kim....

after reading an article about her death, I was shocked to discover that she is not the only Korean Popular personality to commit suicide this year. In fact, she is the 9th,

which leads me to wonder... what is that is causing Korea to has such a fast growing suicide rate... is this a social trend?

I am now a coffee drinker

I never thought that I would ever be able to stomach the taste of coffee, let alone enjoy it. The smell has always made me want to be sick on the closest thing to me.

Now in my twentieth year, I am finding myself drinking gallons of the stuff a week. Due to, initially, the need to stay away and get my uni work finished. But the weird thing is i'm beginning to like drinking it. Whereas normally I have to hold my nose and hope for the best. The other day the words "I really fancy a coffee" actually came out of my mouth. This is the start of yet another unhealthy addiction.

P.S I like mine black with two sugars.

Twilight, its good to look at.

Am I the only person who is not obsessed with Twilight? After a lot of time wondering why every female I know (and the occasional male) is completely obsessed with Twilight, and more to the point, Robert Pattinson, the actor who plays the lead role of a mysterious, teenage vampire Edward Cullen. I belatedly decide to see what all the fuss was about. As recently, with the release of 'New moon' I have found myself feeling like an uninvited member to a secret club of which everyone else seems to be a member.

I was quite excited to be watching it as, i thought, it must be a really good film if everyone else loves it so much. I have to say that I was a little disappointed, the story line is floored and i thought that a lot more would happen to the characters.

Having said this I completely understand the why the entire female population seem to be in love with the character, Edward Cullen. As I, watching it found myself being drawing in, the unusual eyes, the perfectly styled hair, the flat face etc.

I can see this film influencing fashion in the way it makes the vampire thing seem cool and sexy where as before it was a bit cliche. And most men now want the 'Edward Cullen hair' and his sophisticated grey coat. Also the character of Victoria, who has quite a small role in this film, has quite a good look going on with the Fur shawl and the the long curly hair.

I have to say i am now a fan, and find myself looking forward to watching 'New moon' even if it is just to look at the perfectly form features of Robert Pattinson.

Not quite everything, but pretty good.

I recently visited The museum of everything, on the corner of Regent's Park Road and Sharples Hall Street, Primrose Hill, London. The museum of everything is unique in the way it displays artwork of the untrained, You wont find any priceless masterpieces created by some famous artist, only really interesting, quirky pieces, created by someone who just likes sitting in their room and being creative, for fun. And fun it was.

I was intrigued by the name as I found it quite difficult to find, and wondered to myself, how could this museum possibly have everything in it when its so small that I cant even find it? Anyway I eventually found the quirky, handmade looking entrance set back from Sharples Hall St. I was greeted by a man sat in a little kiosk adorned with little lights, he handed me a leaflet and pointed me in the direction of "everything", as opposed to the sign which read "nothing"(made me giggle.) I went up some little stairs and through a little door and came across a cove in which i saw a dozen, intricately made sculptures staring back at me. The ones which caught my eye where brightly coloured and made from little balls of fabric, fascinating.

The place is only small and everything seems to be squished in, which I liked about it, there is no wasted space. And there is an 'unfinishedness' about the place, like wires hanging out of walls and stuff, which adds to its charm. I found myself interacting with the work as each piece was either around a corner, through a whole in a wall or so high up that you had to to work to be able to see it.

The drawings where superb. some simple and childlike, others were obsessively drawn to the point where you needed a magnifying glass to see the detail (which were provided).

And most rooms were themed and even had appropriate music playing. In particular the room which was almost a religious shrine. The work featured was by Rev Howard Finster, Beautiful, naive, religious drawings which put a smile on my face, although some were quite scary.

In The museum of Everything, Everything had been thought about by the creators, and although small, it was a feast for the eyes and had Everything I needed to be truly inspired, and it it shows that anybody can create a piece of fantastic art, and that art doesn't have to be technically good, in fact sometimes the less perfect the better, it's more interesting that way.